Can I Ask a Really Stupid Question About Electric Vehicles?

Understanding everything about electric vehicles can be a lot like trying to learn a foreign language, except the fundamentals of French or Spanish aren't a moving target. Since we're here to help, we compiled a list of questions that some of you submitted regarding the present and future state of EVs. You asked, we answered. And really, the questions aren't stupid. At least not these.

Q:Does cold weather reduce an EV's efficiency or performance?

A: Without a doubt. Low temperatures affect an EV's efficiency and performance in various ways, which leads to reduced acceleration and range—as we proved during a test of this phenomenon that featured a Chevy Bolt. To review, the cold slows down battery chemistry and results in less energy for acceleration. Likewise, the energy used to run the vehicle's thermal management system in both extremely hot and cold conditions, which helps keep the battery at an efficient operating temperature, also contributes to reduced efficiency—which is like your car getting worse fuel mileage. Plus, heating or cooling the cabin steals energy that could otherwise be used for propulsion. All of which means substantially less driving range in cold weather. While every EV will experience a significantly shorter driving range in such conditions, the results vary widely depending on the temperature and your drive cycle and climate-control settings. But a good estimate is that range will be reduced by roughly 20 to 30 percent.

Q: Won't the life of the batteries in an electric cars be drastically reduced within a few years due to constant use—like those in cell phones?

A: While it's true that many EVs use lithium-ion batteries, which are also used to power devices such as laptops and cell phones, auto manufacturers engineer vehicle batteries to significantly outlast your iPhone's. This is done in part by reducing the operating range of the battery, never allowing it to get fully charged or completely empty (even if the display that the driver sees says otherwise). It should also ease your concern to know that every new EV comes with a battery warranty that spans at least eight years or 100,000 miles, and some states a battery warranty that lasts at least 10 years or 150,000 miles. As with all warranties, the specific details and exclusions vary among automakers. Still, Chevy and Nissan, for example, will replace an EV's battery pack if its capacity—the amount of charge it can hold—degrades past a certain threshold.

Q:When will there be an EV that can do a day's worth of driving (500 to 700 miles) without a recharge?

A: That type of driving range is longer than what many internal combustion-engine cars can manage on a single tank of gas, but it would conceivably go a long way toward convincing more people that an EV could work for them. While traveling 500 miles on a single charge is still probably years away, Samsung has developed a solid-state battery that it claims has the potential to provide close to that amount of range, as well as faster charging times and long life. But no one is saying when this technology will be available and affordable for use in electric cars. As for when an EV will be able to travel 700 miles without a charge, well, let's just get to 500 first, shall we?

Q: Do EVs really pollute less when considering both manufacturing and operating emissions?

A: There's a lot to unpack here. We covered some of the environmental implication of EVs a few years ago, and studies have found that they do indeed help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions compared with gasoline-powered alternatives. However, there's a caveat that most people forget, which is that the energy electric vehicles need to operate comes from myriad sources, including coal-powered powerplants that produce different types of air pollution. Another factor is the manufacturing of the battery packs and electric motors, which, produces substantially more emissions than the production of gas-powered vehicles, according to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists. However, the study concludes that even the worst offenders with the largest battery packs offset those higher initial emissions to a positive net result after only 19,000 miles of driving.

Q: Does an EV battery lose its state of charge while the vehicle is turned off?

A: Yes. Every battery ever made self-discharges. Newer lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles are better at maintaining their state-of-charge than certain other types of batteries, but there is still some level of self-discharge. In addition, when an EV is parked in extreme ambient conditions it uses energy to either heat or cool the battery pack to keep it at a safe temperature.

Q: Is it safe to drive an electric car in a flood?

A: Ask yourself this: Would you use a hair dryer while standing in a full bathtub? Regardless of whether it's an electric car or one with an internal-combustion engine, it is never safe to drive on a flooded road. Electric cars have significant protections built in to reduce the chances of electrocution, and there are measures to make sure components do not become contaminated by moisture, but full submersion is a different story. Even if you drive into a flood by accident you likely won’t die from electrocution in an EV. But, just be smart and don't drive into any sort of deep water in any vehicle.

Q: How does using an electric car's heater during the winter affect its range?

A: Since there are so many possible variables involved in answering this question, we'll summarize the results of a test that we recently conducted. Our electrified guinea pig was a Tesla Model 3 that we took to a five-mile oval test track. At an outside temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit, with the Tesla fully warmed up, we conducted three tests at 70 mph. Compared with the HVAC system completely off, we saw an approximately 17-percent increase in energy usage with the heater set to 72 degrees. With the heat turned up all the way—including all five heated seats on high—the car consumed 35 percent more energy than the everything-off baseline. The difference in this case between no heat and full heat was about 60 miles of range, or roughly 20 percent of the Model 3's 310-mile EPA rating. While the Model 3 uses a cheaper—albeit less efficient—type of heater than some other EVs, the long and short of it is that an electric car's heater can dramatically impact efficiency and range—how much just depends on how warm you want to be.

Q: When are electric cars going to be affordable?

A: That depends on your definition of affordable. Although many electric cars still have higher starting prices than their gasoline counterparts, that price difference is predicted to narrow as fuel-economy standards rise and the cost of batteries goes down. Consider the money today's EVs can save you in fuel and maintenance costs during the course of ownership, as well as the many thousands in available federal and state EV tax credits, and electric cars might already be more affordable than you think. In fact, figuring in that tax credit, several EVs already cost considerably less than the average transaction price of an new vehicle in the U.S.—which stood at $35,538 in February, 2020 according to industry analytics firm ALG.

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